Delta Dental of Tennessee Honors Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey | National Business

NASHVILLE, Tenn.–(Business WIRE)–May well 26, 2022–

Delta Dental of Tennessee (Delta Dental) and its charitable arm, the Smile180 Foundation, have acknowledged outgoing Tennessee Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey with its 3rd-ever Smile Ability Award. The award, which celebrates an particular person who has built a major positive impression on the oral health of Tennesseans, was specified to Dr. Piercey in recognition of her stewardship of the state’s new 5-year, $94 million pilot system to grow accessibility to dental treatment known as the Healthy Smiles Initiative . Simply click listed here to watch a movie of the award presentation.

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“Too usually folks handle oral health as a independent concern, and I have to remind them that your mouth is related to the relaxation of your physique,” reported Dr. Phil Wenk, CEO of Delta Dental. “But Commissioner Piercey recognized the value and urgency of addressing our dental crisis in Tennessee from the start out, and played a important part in the development and ultimate approval of the Healthy Smiles Initiative. Generations of Tennesseans will advantage from her leadership, and I just cannot think of a far better or extra deserving receiver of this award.”

At the request of Governor Invoice Lee, Commissioner Piercey convened a group of dental industry stakeholders from throughout the condition in early 2021 to acquire recommendations to raise entry to substantial-good quality, very affordable dental care for Tennesseans. The workgroup, which provided dentists, dental hygienists, the state’s two dental educational institutions, TennCare, the Department of Health, payors, security net clinics, and other folks, settled on a complete set of proposals that grew to become the Healthy Smiles Initiative.

The key components of the Healthy Smiles Initiative are an expansion of dental faculty class dimensions, new and strengthened workforce recruitment and retention attempts, and improved protection net funding. Two current, confirmed protection net systems will get a major increase: the Smile On 65+ software, which supplies oral health care and circumstance administration expert services for more mature grownups, and the prosthodontic grant program, which has to date helped deliver far more than 2,300 Tennesseans seen in protection-web clinics with lower- or no-price tag dentures. One particular of individuals Tennesseans is Samantha, a 33-year-outdated solitary mom of three from Paris, Tennessee who acquired everyday living-preserving treatment at Interfaith Dental Clinic.

“Everything we do at the Department of Health goes again to our mission statement – to shield, advertise, and boost the health and prosperity of people in Tennessee,” explained Dr. Piercey. “The Healthy Smiles Initiative checks all of all those bins – even and particularly prosperity – mainly because if you do not have a healthy smile, you could have difficulty locating and preserving a career, unquestionably a person that aligns with your abilities and abilities.”

“A great deal of individuals do not figure out how entry to dental treatment also impacts a further important issue in Tennessee: rural clinic sustainability,” Piercey extra. “Without a dentist nearby, you stop up with additional people in the emergency room with concerns that could and really should have been resolved by a dentist. And even though the clinic has to – and needs to – care for any person who walks into the ER, they are finding reimbursed quite very little, if everything, for all those expert services.”

In advance of her appointment by Governor Lee in January 2019, Dr. Piercey, a board-accredited boy or girl abuse pediatrician, put in a ten years doing work in health methods operations, most just lately with West Tennessee Healthcare, a public, not-for-earnings health procedure with much more than 7,000 employees servicing 22 counties. She has ongoing to see patients in her pediatric exercise in Jackson, Tennessee, the moment a 7 days all over her support as Commissioner.

Piercey is the third recipient of the Smile Energy Award. The late Condition Agent Charles Sargent, a champion of oral health troubles which include the denture grant software, gained the inaugural Smile Ability Award in 2018. Previous Tennessee Insurance coverage Commissioner Julie Blend McPeak was honored in 2019 for her get the job done in support of the development of Dental Dental’s Smile180 Foundation.

The Smile180 Basis has donated additional than $21.5 million to Tennessee’s dental schools, children’s hospitals, absolutely free and lessened-expense dental clinics, and other like-minded charities given that its development in 2015.

To study more about Delta Dental’s philanthropic work throughout Tennessee, stop by the Smile180 Foundation web page.

Delta Dental of Tennessee

Delta Dental of Tennessee is the state’s most significant impartial dental benefits carrier with virtually 1.4 million life included. As part of the Delta Dental Plans Affiliation, Delta Dental of Tennessee users have access to the most significant dental network in the country with extra than 154,000 vendors serving much more than 437,000 areas. With the very simple mission of making sure healthy smiles, Delta Dental of Tennessee functions challenging to enable customers of the communities it serves. Together with its corporate basis, Smile180, Delta Dental of Tennessee donated extra than $5.4 million in funding and in-variety solutions to in excess of 130 organizations in 2021.

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Contact: Ann Waller Curtis

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Source: Delta Dental of Tennessee

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PUB: 05/26/2022 05:38 PM/DISC: 05/26/2022 05:38 PM

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